June 11, 2008

This year's Taste of LIC was bigger than ever. Thanks to the 550+ who came out to eat, drink, enjoy the weather and support the cause. We are especially grateful to Rockrose for donating the space, to Con Ed for its lead sponsorship, to Diageo for the patron cocktails, to Peter Yurasits for catering the patron hour, to our White, Dark and Milk Chocolate ticket buyers, to the many LIC establishments who served food and drink and/or donated auction items, to the small army of volunteers and staff (Alex! Mallery! Eric!) who accomplished the impossible, to the artists (Aki, Arturo, and Jonathan) for reminding us why we're out here doing this in the first place, and of course to Sheila who spearheaded the entire undertaking. Okay, enough talk. Photos! (courtesy of Sara Wasilausky - thanks Sara!):

Gia Kourlas, NY Times - June 2, 2008

Basic Assembly's "Game On" is proof that a dance can be born in the unlikeliest of places, even in a Slovakian hotel courtyard during a card game. The production, seen on Friday at the Chocolate Factory, also takes inspiration from "Open Score," a 1966 performance piece by Robert Rauschenberg that began with a tennis match.

A lighthearted collaboration, performed by two dancers (Benjamin Asriel and Ashleigh Leite), a video designer (Keith Skretch) and a lighting designer (Joe Levasseur), "Game On," while not exactly a dance, was densely choreographed from beginning to end. The work, which plays with the notion of play, revolves around Set, a game of visual perception in which cards must be matched according to symbol, color, number or shading.

A preshow event took place in the Chocolate Factory's basement space, where the audience was encouraged to play, too, with the board and video games provided. In the second-floor space, cabaret-style seating featured tables equipped with video monitors that showed the cards of the performers, who sat at a table on a raised platform.

A live feed captured close-ups of the players' faces, which were projected onto the surrounding walls. Eventually, the Set cards were switched for others, with lines like "What is it you're looking for?" and "Let's start from the beginning again." When mixed up and spoken at rapid-fire speed, they told a story of sorts that hinted at a mystery. One phrase in particular stood out: "Tell me everything you saw and what you think it means."

As it progressed, "Game On" became somewhat oppressive in all its clever frivolity. Even as the cards danced and Carrie Wood's video-game lighting peppered the floor in rainbow patches, watching a card game you aren't allowed to play becomes tiresome.

But in the last section, Basic Assembly raised the stakes, shuffling performers as it had shuffled cards. As they darted around the room, punching fists into the air to snippets of Devo, or slid head first across the raised platform, Grace Kelly's coolly elegant voice could also be heard reciting lines from Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window." In an instant, everything we saw - and what we thought it meant - took on a greater meaning, about perception. The final set saved the match.

May 28, 2008

I performed at the Movement Research Festival as part of an event called 24x4x4. Tons of fun.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa blogged about it & had this to say: "Serial beer-swilling by the Frigidaire light, killer voiceover, and that image of a figurine of a flower-bedecked cow projected just beneath Judson's rose window? My winner. Let's see this again!" (See the post here).

Megan Nicely also blogged about it here.

Photos from the festival (including the work of yours truly) here.

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